Blogs from Mount Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, Asia - page 4

Everyone I'd spoken to who climbed Mount Kinabalu told me what an amazing experience it was...what they failed to tell me is that the experience is amazing at the summit...and at the bottom...everything in between is a mixture of exhaustion, denial, regret, a lot of sweat and occasional bouts of swearing. Those of you who know me, and know me well, are aware of my inability to sugar coat the facts, and the fact is this climb was a friggin' nightmare for me in all aspects other than when I reached the summit (before the euphoria died away and I remembered I had to climb back down) and when I reached the very bottom and awaiting mini-van ready to get me to a hot shower. So we set off at 5:30am on Monday for the 2 ... read more

We only stayed one night near Mount Kinabalu in a lovely setting called the Pine Resort. We had a nice little room overlooking the mountain. The area is very beautiful. We went for a walk around this morning and went to a war memorial in Kundasang which was for the British and Australian POWs who were held in Borneo by the Japanese. This afternoon we took a bus to the East coast of Borneo. We basically had to stand at the side of the road and wave at the bus to get him to stop. I sat at the side of the road with an umbrella to protect myself from the midday sun. The journey took about 4 hours and I was very impressed by the bus as it was playing the movies "The Tooth Fairy" ... read more

One of the biggest attraction in Sabah, Borneo is Mount Kinabalu. It is one of the taller mountains in SE Asia at 13,435 Feet. Many people come to Sabah just to hike the mountain, but I jus took some time to explore the park surrounding the mountain. I strolled over to the bus station after landing from a flight and didnt really have a plan. I found a bus that said it would leave in an hour, another that said 30 mins... This is one of the disadvantages of traveling alone, you always have to wait for a group before buses, boats, etc will leave. Lucky for me I ran into another person trying to figure out what was going on as well. I asked if he was going to the mountain and he and his ... read more

Woke up early to get ready to take the public bus to the Kinabalu park, Su my Taiwanese roommate woke up the same time and told me he intends to go to Ranau so we decided to take the bus together(15 ringgits). We walked to the bus station and already a van is half full, we got on and a few more gringos came all hiking Kinabalu like me. The trip was a good 2 hours we got drop off at the foot of the park entrance and a walk uphill led us to the registration office, and there I met Shane, an Aussie who is looking to share a guide, a guide costs 85 ringgits and can take a maximum of 6 people, I took him in and he gave me half of the 85 ... read more

16th & 17th December 2009. Willers climbs Mt Kinabalu. Kinabalu Park, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia. Summit: 4095 metres World Ranking: 20th Time: 8 Hours Basically, whatever I write here will not begin to express just how bloody difficult, and exhausting and murderous this was. But even more so, no pictures will represent just how incredibly, fantastically, adrenalin filled & mind blowingly bastard BRILLIANT reaching the summit of a mountain at sunrise actually is. The colours, the feelings, the peace and the tranquility, the view over the top of the clouds, and the twinkling of the towns below when you're about to reach 7K on your assent. Unless you do this - which you should - it will always be just a picture of a rock and some cloud. We started at 10am on the 16th and reached ... read more